Hello,
Question for some of the vets out there. What is the better long term investment if you have excess cash - should I be buying some of my leases out or should I be investing in building a terminal in my main hub ?
Cheers,
~Regan~
Assuming two big ifs (you’ve outgrown your market and FI doesn’t tickle your fancy - both are much preferred choices in my eyes)…
Keep in mind for terminals:
The benefit in the ORS (the few pct pts for Terminal) is only gonna get you out of very tight competitions, it won’t be this most amazing boost.
Buy 5-star with jetways, it is completely useless otherwise
You can build it over time, and in beginning prioritize high competition routes and flights.
You’ll have to manually assign flights in the Terminals field.
It is much more useful for old ORS (with competition) than in the new one…
Keep in mind for buyouts, you’re paying upwards of 20m in the grand majority of cases to save $100k-$1m a week.
You can also go ahead and start buying aircraft on credit if you have good credit. Dependant on your situation, could be better than buyouts (especially if you contribute a decent down payment.
Both have massive upfront cost, so yes, its just endgame stuff. I’m not gonna recommend either or, since I do do both and both have pro/con, but hopefully you have some more informed pool of info to make decision 
Leases are expensive and in the long run are a massive waste of money, so I’d recommend buying airframes once you’re in the situation to have the excess cash (or are at least “save” enough to take a loan purchase)